


Hard Science, meet Metaphysics

by Siabhras



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: AU based on my job in a metaphysical bookstore, Chris Pike is a blessing, College!AU, Everyone Has Issues, F/M, Human AU, Jim works at a pagan store, Like really slow build, M/M, Metaphysics, More tags to come as I write more, No Archive warnings just yet but they'll show up eventually, Paganism, Slow Build, TarotReader!Gaila, TarotReader!Nyota, Wicca, pre-relationship for everyone except Spock and Ny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-20 21:34:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4802984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siabhras/pseuds/Siabhras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jim Kirk returns after 6 years of being MIA and now works at a Metaphysical bookstore, Dr. Leonard McCoy moves to a new town in a new state to escape the ex-wife, Joanna is not happy about being forced to spend a week with her father, and someway hard science and Metaphysics find a way to co-exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Returning Home

It was the middle of March when Christopher Pike was woken up early in the morning by the sounds of a motorcycle outside his house. He grumbled darkly and vowed to never get one of those god awfully loud death machines. With a quick glance at his bedside clock Chris let out a loud frustrated noise. One in the morning was never a good time for anyone to wake up and even worse if the person was a college professor who had two exams to give to students later that day.

  
Pretty soon the engine of the motorcycle shut off and Chris let out a happy sigh. Maybe his neighbours had someone visiting from out of town. He closed his eyes, hoping to catch a few more hours of sleep before the eight am class, only to be interrupted by loud knocking on the front door. Chris got up and stalked down his stairs to the front door, not caring that he was only in boxers, and was fully prepared to give whoever it was at the door a lot of shit. He opened the door and opened his mouth to shout and his words got stuck in his throat.

  
“I went to mom’s house first… the people there said that she’d sold it three years ago. I didn’t have a phone, so I couldn't call you, sorry.” Jim Kirk scratched the back of his head with his free hand, the other one holding onto a motorcycle helmet.

  
Chris stared at the kid before him, shocked into silence. Jim had been MIA for almost six years, vanishing a few months after he had graduated high school. His cell phone and almost all of his personal belongings had been left behind in his mom’s house. No credit or debit card that could have been traced. Police had been unable to find him and after a year of searching Jim had been put on the Missing Adults list and no one had put in any tips towards finding him. Now, almost six years later he showed up and Chris slowly started to smile.

  
“I should be pissed at you right now, it's been almost six years. But, if anything kid, I’m just glad that you’re alive right now.” Chris pulled Jim into a hug, not at all missing how Jim tensed up before hugging back after a few moments. “You want anything to eat?”

  
Jim pulled back and nodded, “Yes please, and sorry for waking you up.”

  
“Don’t even think about being sorry for waking me up. You’re back and that’s more important than me getting sleep. Now, choose, cereal or eggs or both?” Chris headed into his kitchen and flipped on the light, wincing slightly when it came on. He glanced behind him to make sure Jim was following, smiling a bit when Jim slipped into the kitchen and went right towards the fridge.

  
Jim went digging for some type of food that he could eat without needing the epipen that was in his pocket. “Hey, uh… Chris?” Jim hesitated and glanced at the older male.

  
“Hmm? You still allergic to almost everything?”

  
Jim nodded a bit, “Just about. But, I can deal with lactose which is funny. You okay if you don’t have any milk?” When Chris nodded Jim smiled. “Awesome. And, Thin Mints go in a freezer, not the fridge if you want them to last longer.”

  
Chris laughed and moved the thin mints into the freezer. He leaned against the counter and watched the kid get settled at the kitchen table. Jim looked so old compared to the 18-year-old who walked across the graduation stage with a huge smile on his face.

  
“Eventually you need to tell me what happened. Six years is a lot of time to just vanish off the face of the earth and I really don’t want to see you vanish again, neither would your mom.”

  
Jim nodded, “I don’t want to say what I was doing, but I can promise that I never killed anyone or was getting high on drugs. I’m here to stay.” He paused and looked at Chris.

  
“Fine. I’ll take your word for it. Shit happens, but don’t make a habit of dropping off the map ever again. I’ll call Winona tomorrow and then you can tell her hello and that you’re sorry. Also, don’t even think about just sitting on the couch all day.” Chris crossed his arms and frowned a bit.

  
Jim nodded, “Wouldn’t dream of doing nothing. Y’think I could find a job and an apartment?” He smiled and finished the last of the milk  
Chris nodded. “Yeah. Probably.”

  
When Jim smiled Chris sighed softly. It was the same bright smile from graduation day, but looked so out of place on the twenty-five year olds battered exterior. Chris swore that one day he’d get the entire story out of Jim, but for now all that really mattered was that he was alive, safe, and here to stay.


	2. Calling Home

Jim slouched on the couch, flicking through the tv channels after Chris had left to go teach his two classes at the nearby Academy. He glanced down at his left wrist, frowned at the tattoo there and got up to go change into a long sleeved shirt from Chris’s closet. After getting the shirt on, Jim curled up on Chris’s bed, finally letting himself rest after so long of not being able to.

Soon he was asleep. Hours later Jim woke up to a rumbling stomach and he grumbled while making his way downstairs again. Along the way he stopped to look at the photographs that Chris had hanging on the walls and on top of bookcases. A few pictures were of Chris’s parents and himself, but others were of Jim, Winona, Sam, and Chris. Jim picked up the framed picture of his graduation day. The four of them were smiling and Jim could faintly remember that it had been Frank who had taken the picture.

“Mom… I’m sorry I went away.” Jim traced his mom’s face in the picture before putting it back on in it's spot on the dresser.

Finding edible food was no problem, but, finding food that would not cause an allergic reaction was the true bane of Jim’s stomach. He sighed softly and moved things around until he found a jar of pickles and liverwurst. It wasn’t the best of meals, but Jim really did not want to go back outside quite just yet. Sitting on the couch again, he flipped through the tv channels until he found one playing a movie from the past year.

Almost three movies later Chris arrived back from work, quickly dumping large bags of tests and essays to look over onto the small kitchen table. The older man groaned and looked around for Jim. “I’m home”

Jim chuckled a bit, “I remember that you always hated it when you had to grade essays. You always can just give everyone a B+ and call it a day.”

Chris sighed loudly, “No, you can do that. I actually have to grade these ‘cause it's the midterm essay.”

“Well then, I hope everyone used correct spelling.”

Chris rustled Jim’s hair and chuckled a bit, “Let’s hope so. I’m having you help me now that you’re here. Then if you want we can go out to dinner somewhere, my fridge probably doesn't have food you can eat in it.”

Jim tensed at the contact but then nodded, “Yeah, not anymore. I ate the pickles and liverwurst. Sorry.”

He started to organize the essays into two piles, one for himself to look over and one for Chris. “So, how do you grade papers? I… I didn’t need to write or look at papers in a long time.”

Chris got to explaining the midterm essay to Jim and then spent the next three hours reading over the essays. Time crawled for Chris, he kept getting distracted by watching Jim get frustrated over parts of the essays and how the kid hyper focused on the pages. He kept thinking that something was clearly different about the way Jim held himself. At eighteen Jim was going through everything life threw at him with an excitement for the unknown and a clear desire to create. Now, Chris noted, Jim was subdued and anxious about his surroundings. That he was hyper aware of the ambient noise in the house and kept looking towards all the doors and windows, almost as though looking for an escape or waiting for someone to walk in. Chris put down the essay he was only half-heartedly looking over and cleared his throat.

“Dinner? We can go into town and you can see what’s changed and if anyone has an opening for a job. You did want to stay in this town, right?”

Jim nodded, “Yea- Yes. Yes to dinner and yes to looking at town. I really don’t want to have to leave again if I can’t help it.”

Chris smiled, “Fantastic. So, Italian or sushi?”

* * *

 

Jim laid on the pullout couch in the living room as Chris’s place was only a small one bedroom apartment close to student housing for the Academy. He fiddled with the edges of the blankets, unused to the space of the bed and the feel of the blanket. Everything seemed so wrong after the past six years. Jim had fully expected Chris to do anything except remain calm when he had knocked on the door. Tomorrow was going to be a hellish day. Jim knew that he should call his mom but at the same time was not sure just how to go about explaining anything to her. He curled up, pulling the blankets tighter around himself. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

 

In the morning, Jim was woken up to the sounds of Chris making breakfast and singing along with the radio. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair.

“Good morning kid. Breakfast first then I’m setting up Skype.” Chris waved from the kitchen door then went back to getting the food all set out.

Jim pulled on a sweatshirt that Chris had left out for him to wear and went into the kitchen. Breakfast was a silent affair, with Jim picking at the food for a long time before finally finishing it all up. He then cleaned up all the dishes while Chris set up his computer and got Skype ready.

The Skype program ringed a few times before Winona picked up. Jim kept out of the range of the webcam and waited. Winona Kirk had a dishtowel over one shoulder and she waved to Chris.

“You usually call on Fridays and almost never two weeks in a row. But, Hi Chris.” She waved and tried to smile.

Chris smiled back, “Well, something happened yesterday, and before you say anything it wasn’t something bad. Actually, uh… I’ll let someone else talk for a bit.” He got out of the chair and motioned for Jim to sit down.

Winona frowned, “Chris… You know I don’t…” Her voice stopped once Jim sat down in front of the webcam.

“Hi Mom…”  

 

 


	3. Bandon

Jim spent the greater part of four hours talking with Winona. Chris had left the house to give the two of them some privacy, but when he came back Jim was closing the computer with a small smile on his face.

“Hey Kid. How’d it go?” Chris leaned against the kitchen wall, crossing his arms. “Did you and Win start to get a hand on things?”

Jim nodded a bit. “Sorta. She wants to come out soon and thinks that it's a good idea for me to get a job and try for college. Mom…” Jim paused for a moment and tugged at the edges of the sweatshirt, “Mom also… she said you were the one in charge of the money.”

Chris nodded. “Yeah. Win and I never thought that you were gone for good, and she wanted to make sure that if- well-when you came back you’d still get to go to college.”

Jim pulled the sweatshirt tighter around himself and smiled softly. “I liked seeing Mom again… even if she was different looking than what I remember.”

Chris chuckled, “Six years is a long time. But hey, now you’re here. But, you should take a shower or something. You smell like oil and dirt.”

* * *

 

Jim borrowed a thin jacket from Chris and took the forty-five minute walk to downtown. The walk was pretty quiet except for the birds and the distant sound of the freeway. A lot of the houses and apartments that Jim passed belonged to long-time residents of the town or were rentals for the students at the Academy. He glanced at the apartments, hoping to find one with a for rent sign even though it was in the middle of the semester. Nothing showed up, and Jim sighed, thinking that it wouldn't be too bad staying with Chris but it would not be ideal for the long run.

He passed the ‘Welcome to Bandon’ sign and shook his head at the graffiti covering the back of it.  For a college town, Bandon was not at busy as it could be. The main street bordered a large river and the city had set up small parks all alongside the building free side of the river. The great part of the town being inside a valley was that it did not have a huge amount of hills to walk up and down like San Francisco did. Jim stopped outside a Thai restaurant, glancing over the menu.

“Chalice of life…? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jim looked at the store next to the restaurant, frowning slightly. He shrugged and decided to go in since it appeared that no one was inside except the teen at the register.

The store was a lot bigger than it appeared from the outside and also a lot more crowded, as two circular racks of clothing took up a significant portion of the floor space.

“Hello! Let me know if I can help you with anything!” the teen at the register spoke in a thick Russian accent and smiled when Jim turned to look at him.

“Uh… thanks. I’m just browsing.” Jim turned his back to the kid and looked around the store. Candles and incense lined the front windows by the entrance and the cases next to the register held gems and a lot of jewelery. Bookcases took up almost the rest of the wall space and each shelf was packed full, except for one set of shelves that were labeled ‘Tarot/Oracle Decks’. Jim huffed a bit, not sure at all how a store like this made its way into Bandon.

He walked past the clothes and started shuffling through a shelf labeled bargain books. Behind Jim the kid at the register chewed on a pencil eraser and sighed softly. The teen huffed a bit as well and sat on a squeaky chair behind the counter, but soon got up once a group of women came into the store. Jim took it as time for him to get out. The store was interesting, if not very strange and he knew that he’d come back again when it was pretty empty inside. Dealing with too many people at one time, or even being around them, was not going to be a good idea.

Jim took a turn down a narrow alley and soon found himself standing at the edge of the river in town, looking across the water at one of the small parks for little children to play. He smiled softly and walked to the water's edge, finding a flat-ish rock to sit on. Jim took off his shoes and socks and dangled his feet in the water.

“It’s a lot different than Pennsylvania, that's for sure…” Jim shivered a bit, pushing the memories of the past six years away from his thoughts, but still glancing around to see if anyone was closeby.

He wrapped his arms around himself, taking in a deep shuddering breath. This wasn’t Pennsylvania, nor was it Colorado. Jim took the next few minutes to calm himself down, not wanting to break down in public.

“It’s been two years… y’think by now I’d be okay again…” He tossed a small rock into the water and frowned deeply. “Y’think that by now I’d have stopped checking for people and avoiding crowds.” Jim laughed a bit at his own paranoia and pulled his feet from the water. It was time to make the trek back to Chris’s house, Jim decided that he’d had enough of socialization for the next few days.

* * *

 

Pavel ran a hand through his hair, pleased to see the crowd of (overly loud and obnoxious) women finally leave the store, but mostly he was trying to get the curls to go in a somewhat less messy shape. He grumbled a bit when he only managed to make it worse.

Chalice of Life was empty, as it was one of the rare days that no reader or healer was present in the side room, nor were any of the usual customers hanging out. The Fleetwood Mac pandora station played in the background, and after the year’s Pavel had worked at the store he could give the lyrics to almost every single song that would play over the speakers in the store. Mumbling to the current song playing, he grabbed a damp cloth and started to clean the top of the shelves that he could reach without a step-ladder.

Once that was done, he sat down on the always squeaky chair behind the register and fiddled with a pen. In a store that was open for normally ten or more hours each day, a lot of that time was spent just sitting behind the front and waiting for someone to come in. Pavel pulled out a school notebook and got to work on his english homework while waiting for another customer or group of customers to come into the store and hopefully buy something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got part 3 completed! I'd love to hear theories of Jim's years in Colorado and Pennsylvania, but here's one hint: it's nothing sexual.  
> Let me know if you liked it by leaving kudos or maybe even a review if you want to spare a few minutes of time. Hopefully I'll have part 4 done in the next week, and hopefully It'll be a lot longer than the current chapters are.


	4. A new start

In the weeks before Winona arrived in California, Jim had made it a habit to make a daily trip to downtown Bandon to get used to the town once again. On the rare days he did not go into town, he was going to the Academy with Chris and compiling all the paperwork he would need in order to begin taking classes after the summer was over.

“Hey, Jim. I need to ask you something.” Chris waved Jim over to the kitchen table and pushed away the papers he was grading. It had been almost two weeks since Jim had come back and in that time Chris had kept quiet about all the times Jim had woken up yelling or had not slept at all.

Jim winced a bit, hoping that Chris wasn’t going to ask about the past six years again. He sat in the chair and pulled his legs up to his chest, “Yeah? What is it Chris?”

Chris opened his mouth then closed it, struggling a bit to pull all of his words together. “I have a friend.. of sorts who owns a store in downtown. He needs a fourth person to start working, and they’d have to work during the school year as well.” He paused for a minute and watched as Jim nodded, slowly starting to get the point of the conversation. “I know you said you wanted to get an apartment of your own, but you’d need a job first. So, how about we make a deal?”

Jim raised an eyebrow, “A deal? As long as the job’s not shoveling shit for six hours a day I’d take it. I’m better around crowds now, I think, and I’m getting used to downtown.”

Chris chuckled a bit, “I promise it’s not shoveling shit all day long. It’s at the weird shop downtown, Chalice something or other.”

“Chalice of Life. There’s usually some russian kid at the front counter. I’ve been in once or twice. Aren’t all your friends like math and science teachers? Why would one of them own a shop like that?” Jim relaxed a bit and stretched his legs out, purposefully pushing on Chris’s chair.

Chris scooted his chair back, pushing Jim’s chair with his own foot too, and shrugged. “Marcus is weird I guess. He teaches history at the Academy, I think. Or something to do with war somehow. Who knows. He’s pretty decent. But, I do have an apartment that I rent out to students for the school year and I just got a message saying that my current tenants don’t want to renew the lease. Their moving out just before Win come into town.”

“I get the job and pay you rent, that what you're saying?” Jim smiled a bit, sitting up in his chair.

“As long as you don’t fail any of your classes and you go see a therapist.” At the mention of a therapist, Jim stopped smiling. “I get you don’t talk about it with me, but son, I wake up when you wake up too. I’m not deaf nor am I stupid.” Chris sighed and awkwardly patted Jim’s shoulder when he got up to leave. “I love you, but we both know you’re a bit fucked up from whatever it is you don’t talk about. So, think about it.” Chris went upstairs and to bed, leaving Jim alone at the table to his thoughts.

 

Three hours later Jim found himself scratching dark red marks into his arms with his nails while he stared out the window of the living room, shaking slightly. Most of the scratches were focused on his left wrist, as though he were trying to scratch away the tattoo there. Jim sighed and looked down at the tattoo, wiping away the wetness in his eyes.

“I’m more than what you said I was and I’m not going to let you ruin anything for me again. You already took years away from me.” Jim traced the tattoo and curled up on the pull out couch. It was time to move on.

\----

Two days later Jim handed Marcus his filled out I-9 and W-4 forms so that he could begin working at Chalice of Life. “Figure out the schedule with whoever’s working today and then don’t bother me until its payday. Got it?” Marcus handed Jim a store key, not waiting to get an answer, and left him standing outside the building.

Jim raised an eyebrow, wondering if this was usually how business owners acted towards employees. He sighed and walked into the store, looking at the kid at the front. “Uh, I’m supposed to work out a time schedule with you.”

Pavel smiled brightly, “Da! I’m Pavel, but call me Chekov. You must be James! Gaila had an idea that someone was going to start working soon. Marcus never told anyone though. Wow, it’s going to be wery nice having another person working.” He held his hand out for Jim.

“Call me Jim, I haven’t been called James in over seven years.” Jim shook his hand, chuckling a bit at the kid’s accent and general excitement, wondering how the kid knew his name. “So, Pa-Chekov, who else works here? I’ve only seen you or some old guy working.”

Pavel laughed a bit, “That’s Scotty. He fills in ze hours that Carol and I can’t do. And if he can’t make it Gaila usually shows up. But she’s usually around town anyways, even when she’s not working.” He trailed off for a moment before snapping his fingers, “She’ll probably want to throw you a welcome to Chalice party! I had one when I started working here two years ago.”

Jim just nodded, pretending to understand everything that Chekov was saying. He glanced around the store as the younger teen continued to chatter on about what he liked the most about working at Chalice.

“Oh! I should show you where everything iz!” Chekov moved from behind the front counter and motioned for Jim to follow him. The teen spent the next hour showing Jim the store and where everything was located. Jim chuckled a bit when Chekov began a passionate talk about astronomy and the potentiality for other life forms out in space. He only stopped talking to say hello to a few customers that came into the store. “Jim, in ze office there’s a green binder. You can look at ze current weekly schedule and see what will work ze best for you.” Chekov smiled and went back to standing behind the front counter, waiting for the customers to have a question.

Jim went behind the front counters and slipped into the back room through the door marked ‘office’. Against the far wall of the small room he found a desk that was covered in loose papers and mail. The green binder was leaning against an old pc computer and Jim started to leaf through the pages in it, searching for the schedule. Only three individuals were listed on the payroll; Montgomery Scott, Pavel Chekov, and Carol Marcus. “You can’t run a business with only three people...who the hell thought that was a good idea?” He grumbled and pulled out one of the copies of the weekly schedule, glancing over it to see if there were any free hours that needed to be covered.

Kirk took the sheet of paper and left the office, grabbing a pen from the can next to the register. Chekov gave him a smile. “Usually it iz very quiet. Unless Gaila or Uhura are doing readings. Then ze store iz very crowded.”

“Readings?”

Chekov chuckled, “Tarot and Intuitive reading. Ze side part of ze store iz for readers and energy healers to work. Gaila does readings twice or three times a week. Uhura only does tarot on ze first Sunday of each month. There are other readers as well, but zey do not talk with me very much.”

“I’ll be honest, I got this job because my da- a friend knows the owner. I don’t know a single thing about metaphysics.” Jim shrugged, “It’ll be interesting, yeah?”

Chekov nodded, “Da. Two years ago I started working here. First job after moving to states from Russia. Gaila stopped me on ze street outside and said to me ‘you believe in other life-forms. you should work here’. So, I ask for job and here I am today.” He smiled and took the paper from Jim. “I have not once had a bad day of work here. Always something new. Always new people and new things to learn. Even if I go to university for science and math, metaphysics iz very important to me.”  

Jim nodded, starting to want to have a face to put to the name Gaila. “Well, alright then. You can’t be older than sixteen though, how would you be going to college?”

“Seventeen. Since my family move to America I have not been in school, but in Russia I went to university. Then we move and I get a job.” Chekov shrugged, “I have big family. University in America iz very expensive.”

Jim smiled a bit, “What are you thinking of majoring in?” He leaned against the counter, growing to like the teens accent and general excitement about everything.

“Astrophysics and Engineering, I want to find extra-terrestrials!” Jim would have laughed if Chekov had not looked so serious and excited about it. Instead he just nodded.

“Then I wish you luck. Are you thinking about going to the Academy?”

The teen nodded, “I got acceptance letter last week. Everyone at home iz very happy.”

Jim shuffled around with some of the items at the register, thinking about how he was going to get his high school transcripts to the Academy without the police trying to find out what happened in the past six years. Pavel glanced at him then crossed off some of the main hours that Carol and Scotty worked and filled in Jim’s name. “Are you okay with working at least three or more hours a day?”

“H-hmm? Yeah. I really don’t have much else to do until my Mom gets here next week.” Jim shrugged.

“Oh! do you want zat week off?”

Jim frowned a bit, taking a while to respond. “Ah, no. Not really. Maybe two days or just mornings? I haven’t seen her in a long time and I dunno if I’ll actually want to be around her too much…” He scratched the back of his head.

Chekov nodded, giving Jim a knowing smile. “If you ever want to just hang out in ze store Gaila and Uhura always make sure that there’s a nice chair in ze side room. If you want to start tomorrow for training, we should have almost everyone together. First Sunday of the month we meet to go out to a very late dinner. You’re more zan welcome to come.”

Jim nodded a bit, “Yeah, I’ll start training tomorrow. Can I get back to you about dinner though..?”

Chekov nodded, “Da! I vill let Scotty know. Come tomorrow at ten. Scotty vill be working then.”

Jim nodded and headed out, “See you tomorrow Chekov.” He waved, then turned right once out the door, heading back to Chris’s house.

Jim shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, letting out a loud sigh. Just how the hell did Chekov know his name if Marcus hadn’t mentioned that someone was going to start working. Since it was later in the afternoon, approaching dinnertime really, a lot of students were returning to their apartments or having BBQ’s on the side streets. Jim sighed and walked faster past the groups of students, more than ready to curl up on the couch and take over the tv remote to catch up on the news of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to putting this up. Chapters should start to look a little longer, and hopefully in the next chapter we'll meet Bones. But we'll definitely meet the rest of the Chalice crew in part 5.


	5. Firsy Day

The next day Jim spent a good hour before walking to the store trying to pull himself together. It was a Sunday, how hard could it be to learn how to work a register and clean sometimes? Jim grabbed a pre-made sandwich from the fridge. He wrote a quick note for Chris before leaving the apartment.

It was almost ten when Jim made it to the store. Outside, a man was leaning over the planters outside the store, whistling and with a watering can in his hand. He grumbled a bit when the water splashed onto his shoes.   
“Erm, Scotty, right?”

The man turned, giving Jim a smile. “Thas’ me. Montgomery Scott, but everyone calls m’ Scotty.” He stuck out a hand.   
Jim shook it, giving the older man a firm handshake. “Chekov told me to find you. Something about getting trained.”   
Scotty chuckled a bit, nodding. He handed Jim the watering can and walked into the store, humming along to the music playing from the speakers embedded in the walls. “Just put it in the back room, on top ah the shelves back there. Then come back out and I’ll show you the register.”

Jim slipped into the back room, quickly spotting where the watering can was supposed to go. After putting it away he splashed some cold water on his face, taking a deep breath. How hard could standing behind a counter and working a register be really? Jim wiped the water off with a towel and went out of the back room. Scotty waved him over.

“Alright. So tha’ register’s a bit tricky. She doesn’t always accept the credit cards or register the numbers, but she’s always worked the best when it’s busy.” Scotty went on to explain the departments of the store items and how to input them into the register. He patted Jim on the shoulder and chuckled a bit, “I’ll watch today as ya’ use the register. Nyota’ll be here in about an hour and she’ll want ta’ say hello to ya too.”

Jim just nodded, mentally going over all the buttons he’d have to press during each transaction. The next hour was pretty quiet in the store, very few people came in and Jim only had one transaction to make. He sat on the squeaky chair and fiddled with a pen, not really knowing what to do when no one else was in the store just yet. It seemed like hours had gone by when a tall woman walked into the store, speaking into a bluetooth device on her ear in some language that Jim could not recognize.

‘Jesus christ she’s beautiful’ he thought, standing up from the chair and giving her a friendly smile instead of saying hello since she was on the phone.

She paused her sentence and looked Jim over, frowning softly. “I need to go now, _tal-kam_. I hope that new doctor gives you little problem.” She tapped the bluetooth, ending the call and put a hand on her hip, looking up at Jim.  

Jim swallowed, the woman’s presence in the room was almost physical, as though someone had raised the intensity of gravity. He gave her another smile, despite the vague feeling of being judged. “Good morning.”

She nodded to him, “Good morning to you as well. Welcome to Chalice, I’m the reader for the first sunday of each month.” She held out a manicured hand for him to shake. "You can call me Uhura."

Jim shook her hand, "I'm Jim. Today's my first day of training."

Uhura nodded, giving him a small smile. "Chekov is already fond of you. I hope that you will enjoy working here and stay for a while. Gaila will like having a new individual at work." She tapped the counter twice and headed into the side room, putting her bag on a small table. Uhura unpacked her bag, pulling out a carved wooden box and several tea candles and dhoop cone incense. She moved around the two chairs in the side room until the setup was to her liking.

"Ny! Lass it's good ta see you again!" Scotty wrapped an arm around Uhura’s slim shoulders, causing her to laugh softly. He kissed her cheek and Uhura patted his hand.

“It’s only been a few weeks Scotty. You fixed the hospital’s main boiler.” She rolled her eyes and took a seat at the table.

Jim peeked into the side room, not wanting to leave the front empty but also wanting to know more about Scotty and Uhura. He pinched the skin between his thumb and forefinger, taking in a few deep breaths before returning to the front. Jim reached for a clean paper towel and the windex, beginning to wipe down the front counters and the shelves.

\------

Nyota Uhura was not particularly pleased that her boyfriend of almost three years was called into work early that Sunday morning because a new surgeon would be joining the hospital soon. She sighed softly, tapping a finger against the carved box that housed the tarot deck she used for general readings. Nyota got up a few moments later to put her sign outside the store so that people would see that someone was available for readings. She lingered outside a moment, taking the time to watch Jim at the front counter. To her, Jim was so strange. He held himself tall but shied away from human contact. Nyota shook her head slightly, thinking that Spock would say it would be illogical to make a judgment on a person based purely upon her own intuition. She sat back at her table but within a few moments was standing back up again to make a cup of tea. Nyota took the cup to the front and offered it to Jim.

"Take it. I promise that there's no poison in it." She pushed the mug into Jim's hand, giving him a small smile.

Jim stiffened at the physical contact but took the tea. "Ah... Thank you Uhura. I don't really expect anyone would want to poison someone like me." He gave the psychic a bright smile.

Nyota nodded a bit, taking note of Jim’s  leaning against the counter. "Tell me how you found out about Chalice. The last time we had someone new was two years ago, and that was Chekov."

Jim shrugged a bit, hesitating for a moment before speaking. "I was gone for a long time and just got back to town almost a month or more ago. I'm staying with my dad until I can get an apartment and finish up applying to the academy. Chris knows the owner and he said that there was an opening here for someone in the front." Jim held onto the tea with both hands, taking a few moments to just stare at the drink. "I'm hoping that it'll be easier to go to college too once I've gotten used to being around people again."

Nyota raised an eyebrow, she knew Chris and knew that he had no kids of his own, "Well, there's no better place than here to become used to humanity again. But one question for the new recruit; What do you consider to be magic?"

Jim put down the cup of tea and sat back on the squeaky chair. "I've never thought about it. Magic's always been card tricks and rabbits out of black hats. Or it's been some old lady cursing someone to live a life of misfortune." He chuckled a bit, "I honestly have no idea what to make of working at a metaphysical store. Everything just seems so new and honestly really weird. Ah, no offense Uhura." Jim scratched the back of his head.

Nyota put her hand on top of his and patted it slowly. "I promise that I'm no old witch wanting to put a curse on you. Now, I make no promises for Gaila." She laughed a bit and went back to her table.

\------

Jim spent the rest of the day fumbling over the register, often calling for Scotty to help him get the old machine back into working order. With the store heading into another hour or so of quiet time, depending on if anyone was getting dinner just yet or not, Jim picked up a slightly damp cloth and started to get rid of the dust on the bookshelves. Scotty excused himself for the night, claiming that dinner out with everyone would exhaust his still beating heart, leaving Jim and Nyota to care for the store until closing.

Not long after Jim had gotten out from behind the front counter a young girl rushed into the store, looking angry but determined to get into the store. Jim chuckled a bit, “Welcome to Chalice. Let me know if I can help you fin-”

“Joanna! Dammit don’t run off like that, your mom would kill me if you ran off!”

Jim shut his mouth, trying not to laugh at the man’s annoyed expression. He moved back to behind the counter, giving the older male a quick smile which was returned with a small nod of the head.

Joanna turned around and stuck her tongue out at the man, Jim quickly figuring out that he was her dad. “Momma ain’t close enough to kill ya. And I wanted to see this store.” She huffed and marched towards the racks of clearly too big clothing and made a show of looking at each and every piece on display.

Jim shook his head, somewhat remembering a time when Sam had done the same thing when the two had been on vacation with Winona one summer. He stopped when the man leaned up against the counter with a sigh.

“Sorry about her. She kinda just ran across the street when she saw that the store was open. I don’t really think there’s any stores like these in Georgia.”

Jim shrugged, giving him another smile. “It’s fine actually. Apparently the store’s usually pretty quiet about this time of the day, so I guess it's nice to have someone come in who's really excited. And, Georgia? That’s pretty far from California.”

“Yeah. She’s just visiting though. Er..” He turned a bit and held his hand out to Jim, “I’m Leonard. Thank’s for not kicking us out when I shouted.”

Jim hesitated a second before shaking the offered hand, “She’s not the worst kid to come in. I’ve already heard some horror stories from Uhura and Scotty. Ah, call me Jim.”

Joanna came to the front and put three different stones on the glass. “Hey mister. Do you know what these are? They look pretty and I wanna get one for mom.”

Jim chuckled, “Yeah, they sure are pretty. I actually have no idea what gems these are, but why don’t you help me figure it out?” He grabbed two books from behind the counter and handed one to her. “I think they should be inside one of these two books, almost every gem the store sells is.”

Joanna smiled big and started flipping through the already ratted book in her hands, sometimes stopping to attempt to sound out the names of some of the gems on the pages. She held up a page labeled ‘rose quartz’ to Jim, “Look! I found one-a’ them!”

Jim nodded, “You sure did.” He hummed a bit, thinking. “So, this is actually my first day working here, so can you help me find all of the rose quartz in the store?”

“Yes I can!” Joanna pushed the book into Leonard’s hands and started tapping her foot, waiting for Jim to get out from behind the front desk. Jim rolled his eyes and led the ten year old around the store in search of every piece of rose quartz. After finding all of it, Joanna picked out a carved piece of the quartz that resembled an angel. She looked up at Leonard, “I want this for mom.”

“Joanna McCoy, use your manners.”

“Treadway, not McCoy. And, may I _please_ get this for mom?”

Leonard grumbled a bit but nodded, “Yeah. I’m sure Jocelyn’ll like it.” He paid for the carving and waited as Jim wrapped it up and put it in a little box for Joanna to keep it safe in. Leonard gave Jim a small wave as the two left the store.

“Thank’s for coming in today!” Jim waved back and then sat on the chair, sighing loudly after the two were out of the door and out of earshot. “Damn, he’s really attractive.”

Nyota laughed and came up to the counter, giving him a smile. “So, everyone but Scotty’s queer then. This’ll be fun.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Finally got around to finishing up this chapter. It ended up going a totally different way than I intended, but I still like it. Hopefully next chapter I'll get the rest of the Chalice crew in and maybe have Winona arrive from Iowa. Who knows!   
> As always, please let me know what you think of the chapter!   
> (And, here's a tidbit from my job: My boss is the only straight person who works at the store. Everyone else is either a lesbian or queer in some fashion, even most of our regulars are queer women as well!)

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos or a review are appreciated!  
> Thanks for reading


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